


Looking for a Third

by Zoadgo



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Meeting at a fairground, Modern AU, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-02-24
Packaged: 2018-03-14 23:44:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3429941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoadgo/pseuds/Zoadgo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"the ride we want to go on is three people a cart and we’d rather choose a stranger to sit with than have one chosen for us plus you look relatively not sweaty want to join us" au</p>
            </blockquote>





	Looking for a Third

“Seriously, Clarke? The Scrambler?” 

“And what exactly is wrong with it? It’s the classic fairground ride.” Clarke crosses her arms in front of her chest and levels a look at Bellamy that had, on many occasions, caused people to apologize for things they hadn’t even done yet. But of course Bellamy’s well used to Clarke’s famous glares by now, so he just snorts and gestures at the offending contraption.

“It’s a piece of junk that hardly anyone rides unless the lines for everything else are too long. It looks like more fun than it is, and this one in particular sounds like it’s about to break at any second. Plus,” He slings an arm around Clarke's shoulders and smiles at a couple being turned away by the carnie guarding that particular attraction, “it’s a three person ride and they won’t let us on if we don’t have a third. Unless you want to be paired with someone from the singles line.”

Clarke’s gaze skims over the selection of men and women, most either too young for her to consider allowing them in a ride with Bellamy and her - Clarke has very little shame when it comes to showing affection, and Bellamy is the same - or showing signs of having been in the sun with nothing but mini donuts and soda for sustenance a little too clearly. Clarke wants to go on the ride, mostly at this point because Bellamy is against the idea and thinks he’s won with this suggestion, but the fact is that Bellamy may be right. Just as Clarke is about to resign herself to the fact that she’s going to have to admit defeat to Bellamy, she spots someone glaring at the sweaty back in front of them with such intensity that Clarke’s surprised the man doesn’t burst into flames from it.

“Her.” Clarke points just long enough for Bellamy to follow the gesture, and then immediately starts moving towards her target. She hears a resigned sigh from behind her followed by heavy boot steps, and Clarke smiles. Bellamy knows better than to stop her when she’s made up her mind, she’s trained him well.

The woman doesn’t even show any sign of registering them approaching her, still focused on destroying the man in front of her with a look. She’s perfectly still, clenched fists making muscles stand out slightly on her bare arms, and Clarke decides she loves how angry this girl is. She looks to be about the same age as Clarke, maybe somewhere in between Bellamy and herself, and she also looks like she actually could break a person in half if she set her mind to it. Clarke throws a grin over her shoulder at Bellamy, and he shoots her a smirk in response.

“Hey.” Clarke places her hands on the metal barricade that separates the singles queue from the general hustle and bustle of the campground, leaning forward slightly and grinning at the girl. The murderous look drops from her face for the moment and she raises a skeptical eyebrow at Clarke.

“Hello?” The girl makes the greeting a question, and Clarke can understand her confusion. Strange couple walks up to you out of the middle of nowhere and doesn’t even introduce themselves, Clarke thinks she would react the same.

“I’m Clarke, and that’s Bellamy.” Clarke doesn’t need to look behind her to know where to point. Bellamy has a habit from his days of cadet training to always walk to the right of her, something he’d tried to explain to her involving a lot of talk about sizing and right markers which she had eventually ended by accepting defeat in understanding it and just kissing him instead. Whatever the reason, she juts a thumb over her right shoulder, and sure enough, the girl nods in greeting to, presumably, Bellamy.

“Lexa.” Clarke notices the way that Lexa lifts her chin slightly, as if making the simple statement about her identity is a challenge to the world, and she’s satisfied in her choice. Lexa seems incredibly strong and slightly daring, which Clarke happens to know is both Bellamy’s and her own taste in women.

“Do you want to skip this line?” Clarke hears a not so subtly whispered “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” from the teen boy behind Lexa, and the two women shoot him a glare in unison. When he starts looking around for an escape route, Clarke turns her attention back to Lexa and smiles again. “We need a third to get in and the couples line is empty, so…”

Lexa actually seems to debate it for a moment, which is honestly not something Clarke had considered. It’s a fairground and a chance to jump to the front of the line, not a life or death decision. Is she always this serious about everything?

“Okay.” Lexa nods and ducks under the metal partition smoothly. “But I will sit in between you two. I don’t relish the idea of serving as a cushion upon which you can make out.”

Clarke is about to protest the implication, not that she doesn’t love teasing Bellamy in inappropriate situations, but Lexa’s already taken off towards the entry gate to the ride. It takes a moment for Clarke’s brain to catch up with the situation, but then she sets off after Lexa.

“Clarke.” Bellamy grabs her wrist as she passes him and turns to wrap his arms around her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder and speaking quietly into her ear. “You know that she only agreed to be our third in regards to seating on the ride, right? Not in our relationship?”

“Oh, like you would be opposed to it.” Clarke lifts Bellamy’s hands from where they’re clasped on her stomach and presses a kiss to them. It had been a long time since they’d had anyone else join them, but they both enjoyed it when they had a third or fourth person.

“Not that I wouldn’t love another terrifying woman to boss me around-” 

“Hey, you love that too.”

“- _but_ she might not be okay with you just deciding that she’s our girlfriend now. Remember how many conversations it took before we could convince Raven that we really wanted her for more than just the occasional threesome? And she knew both of us really well, this is a stranger.”

Clarke presses her lips together for a second, then nods sharply. Bellamy presses a kiss behind her ear just as Lexa shoots them an annoyed look. Clarke drags Bellamy forward, determination clear in every inch of her posture. Lexa may be a stranger right now, but Clarke is determined to change that. Bombarding the girl with question while they’re locked together on a metal bench whirling around at high speeds probably isn’t the most tactful thing to do, but Clarke has relatively no shame.

“Sorry about that, Lexa.” Lexa simply quirks an eyebrow briefly, whatever that’s supposed to mean, and moves past the carnie, who gives Bellamy and Clarke’s “unlimited rides” wristbands the most cursory of glance before waving them on.

Clarke follows Lexa one of the pods, covered in peeling pale blue paint that seems like it may have once had flowers painted on it, before the sun had its way with the motif. They’re the first ones in this group of riders to be seated, which gives Clarke plenty of time to interrogate Lexa before the ride starts up. Also time for Lexa to run away, but Clarke sets her chin and doesn’t allow herself to think about that. She climbs into the position towards the inside of the wheel, definitely not choosing that spot because it will press her up against Lexa every time they reach the outside of the cycle. Granted, the other spot would have Lexa pressing against her, so it’s really a win win situation.

“So, Lexa.” Clarke smiles as Bellamy shoots her a warning glare and shakes his head slightly. He knows Clarke well enough to see that this isn’t the set up to idle chitchat that it pretends to be, and he loves her enough not to stop her. Sometimes Clarke wonders how she was lucky enough to have found him, but then she turns her gaze back to Lexa and hopes she has just a little more luck left in the karmic bank.

“Yes?” 

“What are your feelings on polyamory?” Clarke has to hold back a laugh at the gentle smack as Bellamy drops his head into his hands in defeat. To her credit, Lexa doesn’t show any surprise or offense over the topic, merely seems to debate her response with the same care she used to decide if she would sit with them on the ride.

“I suppose I’m not really in a position to judge that, having had no opportunities in that field. But I believe any relationship could work, with sufficient communication.” And Clarke’s heart jumps happily at Lexa’s response, even though it sounded more academic than emotional. She gets the impression that that’s just how Lexa is most of the time, and it makes Clarke want break that resolve.

“And if I said that Bellamy and I are in an openly polyamorous relationship?” Clarke glances over Lexa’s shoulder and sees Bellamy shaking his head in his hands, completely slumped down in his seat. Whatever, he’ll either forgive her or thank her.

“...I suddenly feel that sitting in between the two of you is not enough to get you to keep your hands to yourselves.” Bellamy sighs and Clarke smiles and holds her hands up it a position of surrender.

“If you want me to keep my hands to myself, they’ll remain here the entire ride. And you don’t have to worry about grumpy cat over there,” Bellamy grumbles a protest at the impromptu nickname, “it took me a month to convince him I was totally okay with him holding my hand in public. For someone so big and strong, he’s surprisingly shy sometimes.”

Their conversation is cut off temporarily by the attendant locking the bar across their laps, simply sighing in Bellamy’s vicinity until he straightens and allows the man to do his job. He goes around to the rest of the groups and then rattles off a surprisingly peppy safety speech. There’s a moment between the cutoff of the crackly PA system and the initiation of the ride, and Lexa chooses then to respond to Clarke.

“I never said that my misjudgment was a bad thing.” And Clarke drops her hands to the bar in front of her with a slow smile as the contraption begins to move. Even Bellamy perks up slightly, on the other side of Lexa, and turns to her.

“You mean you’d be okay with this?” He gestures to all of them, and the corner of Lexa’s lips quirks in a small smile. 

“You’re both attractive, Clarke is bold, and you know better than to attempt to restrain her. I think it could be interesting.” Clarke shoots a triumphant smile at Bellamy and he just shakes his head with a small grin. 

“You know next to nothing about us.” The motions of the ride begin to increase, pushing them all together slightly at every turn, not yet the crushing intimacy the machine will force on them in a few moments.

“And you about me. But there is always time to learn. Not, however, now.” Lexa full on grins as the Scrambler amps up to its full rotation speed, throwing herself into Bellamy with a vicious glee that Clarke gladly shares in. Bellamy grunts slightly at the sudden onslaught, but then the spell of the rattly old ride takes over him as well, and he starts attempting to throw them off. In the end, even his impressive muscles and determination proves no match for the combined weight of the girls and centrifugal force.

The ride begins to slow its cycle with the trio still firmly pressed together, Bellamy chuckling, Lexa smiling fondly, and Clarke giggling, hands having remained on the metal bar despite warnings. They stay that way until the carnie unlocks them and they stumble onto slightly unsteady legs. Well, Clarke and Bellamy do. Lexa seems perfectly stable, and Clarke snakes an arm around her waist.

“My legs are shaky and you seem unfairly balanced.” Clarke responds to the unspoken question in Lexa’s gaze. Bellamy hand squeezes Clarke’s shoulder lightly, his arm having found its way across Lexa’s shoulders. She turns the same slightly unimpressed, slightly amused gaze on him and Bellamy shrugs.

“For balance.” Lexa just sighs and shakes her head slightly with a small smile still hinting around the edges of her lips.

“So we’re starting this now, then?” Lexa doesn’t direct the question at either of them in particular.

“Only if you want to.” Carnival games and being a third for seating is one things, a relationship is entirely another. Clarke doesn’t want to force or rush things, but getting her number and waiting makes no sense. They have to have a first date at some point, right? Why not now?

And there’s that heart-stopping pause, more worrying this time than the previous two. Because Clarke wants this, and she can tell in the slight tensing of Bellamy’s grip, so does he. Sure, they’d get over it and move on with their date alone if she said no, but it would just be so much better if she said yes. The moment stretches out, until it’s broken by the carnie’s passive aggressive sigh as he waits for them to clear the area.

“I think,” Lexa begins, and Clarke heart jumps in her throat, “the man would like us to leave. Where should we go next?”

She addresses the question to both of them and heads towards the exit, making no attempts to remove herself from their grasp. And Clarke doesn’t even protest when Bellamy calls for another round of mini donuts, because even logging her heart down with grease and sugar couldn’t stop it from floating as high as it is right now.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for an anon on tumblr using a prompt from[ this](http://bisexualclarke.tumblr.com/post/111918046483/ive-been-seeing-a-lot-of-au-posts-for-two-person) list! I hope you guys enjoy this, because I'm actually semi proud of it and it's super fluffy, which rarely happens. Anyways, thanks to the scientifically accurate with terminology [coldsaturn](http://coldsaturn.tumblr.com) for editing it so quickly!
> 
> I love it when you guys chat with me [on tumblr](http://jonnmurphy.tumblr.com)! And thanks in advance for commenting/viewing/leaving kudos <3


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